Control

Chapter Eight

Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.
-Jim Morrison

What are you doing here?

His voice was full of authority and I felt like running away. He looked terrifying. The question wasn't even directed at me and I was shaking with fear nevertheless.

Grace didn't even react to his booming voice. Her movements remained calm, her gaze focused. It took half a minute of tension to fill the room until she decided to answer the posed question.

"You know exactly, what I'm doing here; my job. And if I'm correct, you wouldn't be here, if you would be doing yours right", she stated in a matter-of-fact-tone.

"Nobody ordered you to come here."

This time she turned her head to look at him while she spoke.

"I felt  that she needed help." She turned back to me, continuing to tend to my wounds. When he spoke next, his voice sounded different.    

"You still shouldn't have gone here alone."

Grace huffed. He continued talking without giving her any notice.

"But I will go to the Alpha and state you request." He cast her one last glance, then turned around and left the room with heavy steps. One of the guards followed him, the other stayed by the door, constantly keeping an eye on me.

"They will never learn to trust me. He thinks he's always right. Oh I'm so important, bow before me, do as I bid." She made a disgusted snorting sound and I had to suppress a smile. Her whole demeanor broadcasted annoyance, yet I got the feeling that she wasn't truly as angry as she acted to be. I wondered what her position here was. For a simple pack doctor, the Beta held her in too high regard. Apart from that she also couldn't be the mate of an important pack member, since she didn't smell like a mated she-wolf and also didn't bear a mark.

Her hands continued working on my wounds, as she kept on talking and cussing. She seemed so out-of-place in this dark place. Her bubbly character was too bight for the room. But even outside of it, she was probably a rarity among her people and seemed to be simply misplaced. I wondered how she had ended up here.

When she had finished tending to my wounds, she turned her head a little and looked at me with a weird expression.

"What's wrong?"

She snapped out of her drifted-away state but the crease between her eyebrows remained, even as she reassured me that everything was fine. My attention wandered elsewhere, when suddenly the door opened again.

A knot formed in my throat. The wound on my neck started to hurt again as my eyes fell on him. He stared right back at me, emotionless. When his gaze focused onto the injuries he had inflicted upon me, he smirked.

Grace seemed only a little more nervous by the presence of the Alpha than she had been before. He was intimidating, but she could clearly stand her ground. Her posture was proud, the bow of her head, in regards of the two leaders, only a slight movement. The Beta was the first one to talk.

"You know it is punishable to help enemies of the pack, however regarding the special situation we found ourselves in", he threw her a pointed look which I didn't understand, "we decided for her to get transferred to the infirmary. A guard will be placed in front of her room at all times."

Even though I could only see her back, since she had taken a protective stance in front of me, I knew that Grace was smiling. I would have done so too, if my exhaustion hadn't been to the point of passing out again. There was no strength left in me.